Holiday fire victims gifted with community help

Fiona McCoy of Peapack clutches Ted, her toy teddy bear, outside
the home of friends Frank and Melissa Semcer in the Pottersville
section of Tewksbury Township on Sunday, Dec. 28. The stuffed
animal was one of the few things McCoy recovered after fire gutted
her 2 Highland Ave. apartment on Monday, Dec. 22. Sadly, McCoy's
pet cats, Minnie and Chloe, succumbed to smoke inhalation.

PEAPACK-GLADSTONE - Fiona McCoy's nose wrinkled as she held Ted
at arm's length.

"He's very smelly, but he's one of the few things they managed
to save," she said.

It was the afternoon of Sunday, Dec. 28, and McCoy, a native of
Belfast, Northern Ireland was standing outside the home of friends
Melissa and Frank Semcer in the Pottersville section of Tewksbury
Township.

She was trying to air out the stuffed Teddy bear that her
parents gave her 32 years ago, when the then 2-year-old McCoy was
hospitalized for surgery. Now it seemed the time-worn toy, now
blackened by reeking soot, required some care of his own.

"I hope he can be cleaned," she said. "But he's so
old."

Aside from some documents firefighters found safely stored in a
fireproof box, Ted is about all the 34-year-old McCoy has left. She
has been staying with the Semcers since Dec. 22, when a fire that
began in her Peapack duplex at 2 Highland Ave. destroyed it and
that of her neighbor, David Mercer.

The pre-Christmas blaze brought out more than 45 firefighters
from the twin borough, Far Hills, Bedminster Township and
Bernardsville.

Both apartments were rendered uninhabitable, and McCoy, Mercer,
and Mercer's sons, Justin, 23, and Jeffrey, 21, suddenly found
themselves, three days shy of Christmas, homeless, with few
belongings, and no renter's insurance to cover their
losses.

According to police, no one was injured in the fire. The younger
Mercers were home but escaped unharmed. David Mercer, a sales
manager for a tool equipment company in Farmingdale, and McCoy, who
is a human resources manager for a bank in Flemington, were both at
work.

But McCoy's two cats, Minnie and Chloe, succumbed to smoke
inhalation. Chloe, a brown tabby, was discovered by firefighters.
McCoy said she found Minnie, a black and white shorthair, when she
went back to the three-story duplex to sift through the ruins and
salvage what she could.

With David Mercer's help, she buried the pets in the yard, then
piled rocks atop the makeshift graves so no animals could get at
them.

Praised Firefighters

On Monday, Dec. 29, Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne Forrest
said fire investigators ruled out arson as the fire's cause.
Rather, they found the blaze was the fault of a space heater placed
too close to a sofa in McCoy's apartment, he said.

The house is owned by Nicholas Bolio of Morristown. Bolio could
not be reached for comment before this newspaper went to press on
Monday.

Despite the losses, both McCoy and Mercer had praise for the
firefighters.

"They were tremendous," said Mercer in a separate interview on
Sunday. "They salvaged what they thought would be important to
us."

Some computers and electronic equipment were salvaged, but
Mercer said he had not tested them yet to see if they worked.
Firefighters also saved a box of family photos that they threw on a
bed and covered with a tarpaulin, he said.

He said McCoy's loss of her cats "was heart-wrenching. We buried
them so she (McCoy) could get some closure."

The holiday tragedy has brought an outpouring of kindness from
friends and strangers for the fire victims.

Like McCoy, the Mercers found sanctuary in the home of friends
in Chester. Mayor Vincent Girardy convinced the Friends of Matheny
School and Hospital to donate items the families needed. And two
funds for McCoy and Mercer have been set up at the
Peapack-Gladstone Bank, according to bank manager Tom
Kasper.

McCoy's fund was originally proposed by Morris Township resident
Chris Katz, who has known McCoy for "over 10 years." "Fiona's such
a great person. I felt this was something I really needed to so,"
she said.

Anyone wishing to contribute to the funds may do so by sending
checks or money orders to the Fiona McCoy and/or Dave Mercer funds,
Peapack-Gladstone Bank, P.O. Box 178, Gladstone, N.J.
07934.

Watch this discussion.Stop watching this discussion.

(0) comments

Welcome to the discussion.

Be Yourself. We do not accept and will not approve
anonymous comments. If your username is not your name, please sign
your posts as you would a letter to the editor with your full name
and hometown.Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language.PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated.Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything.Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism
that is degrading to another person.Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts.Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness
accounts, the history behind an article.